I've completed a basic custom animation class based on the game object base class and have that up and running and able to spawn NPCs on demand; so be it I only have one NPC model converted for use in Esenthel at the moment. The rest can follow at some later date.

I will be pressing on now with writing the exporter for the EKI One Configurator and testing that I can export all the required data for building and testing the AI in EKI One. Once I've completed a simple test AI simulation I'll write the real time interface to allow the AI engine to feed the data back into Esenthel to control the NPCs and ensure that's all working.

Very good stuff, mate. I was wondering if you have the EKI One package or the indie, and if you have the EKI One, would it be possible for me to see a walkthru of the server ui, etc and its server end capabilities with you?

@ACEIO76
Although in theory I am licensed for the full version, due to the integration work I did for Leadwerks, I have only used the Indie version to date.

As far as AI design and implementation is concerned my understanding is there is no difference between the two products. The difference really only comes into play if you require scalable server architecture where the full version contains a server module offering dynamic instancing and load balancing capability.

For real world MMOs this would be essential but for smaller multi-player implementations I'm reliably informed by the developers the Indie version can be effectively deployed on a server.

A word of warning though. EKI One is Windows only and all development has ceased on this product since Artificial Technology were bought by The Masa Group. Much of the technology has been incorporated into their new product which was showcased at E3 but is as yet not available to purchase.

First step of AI Engine integration completed. I have written a raw height map exporter
to export a series of 16 bit raw files in normal and res+1 format including Left and Right
Hand Coordinate versions and successfully got my Esenthel test level terrain into the EKI
One AI Engine test configurator:

No problem, I'm happy to explain. In my previous work with Leadwerks Engine 2.0 I developed a Finite State Machine based AI system for NPCs which worked really well and allowed me to start to develop some of the AI I wanted. I was working on a First Person Shooter at the time, in order to gain some experience in game design, and wanted my NPCs to be a little more intelligent than your average 'just run at you shooting' type enemy! So I developed the ability to use cover and had my NPCs actively seek out cover points whilst attacking and hold down covering fire as others advanced.

This was just the start of what I had planned but after just a short while I started to realize it was all getting very complex to maintain and keep a top level overview going. I basically needed better tools and started to look at AI Engines that provided tool sets designed to aid good AI design.

Enter EKI One, the tools this engine provides would have taken me years to write and gave me really what I was looking for along with a few features I'd never even thought of. To summarize EKI One is a one-stop solution for in-game behavior. By way of illustration here are just some of the features offered by EKIOne:

Full navigation mesh generation using RECAST including dynamic grid based path finding.

Their own steering and navigation system capable of handling large numbers of NPCs.

Visual Design & Scripting Tools: Full support of Hierarchical Finite State Machines with graphical design interface. Drag and drop states and link them together to form the high level design of your AI before assigning Lua scripts at the lower levels to control it all. A built in plot system for coordinated control of NPC behavior including cut scene production.

Full perception system built in - Have your NPCs respond to sight, sound and even smell.

A superb Ambient AI system. Set up ambient behavior for any number of NPCs and have them enact that behavior once you get within a given radius. This includes the ability to break out of the ambient behavior and think for themselves under given conditions. The system is incredibly versatile and allows roles to be defined for NPC types without assigning them to any given NPC. NPCs will inherit the roles when entering defined areas and act out their roles.

Use virtual agents to simulate AI Directors and Strategic AI

The ability to import levels (using a Game Engine to EKIOne exporter) into their sandbox and design, model and test your entire AI without having to run it in your game engine. Your game engine doesn't even need to be complete at this stage, programmers can be working on that as others design and test the games AI. Test it in your game engine once most of the bugs have been ironed out!

For MMO designers the ability to upgrade to the full version which enables the AI engine to be run on scalable server clusters providing the AI on a client server basis allowing the type of scaling required for these types of games and handling dynamic instancing and load balancing.

Multi-threaded running

EKI One does have a large learning curve and is no longer being developed or actively supported, but having invested a lot of time in the engine I'm keen to leverage its AI capabilities in my adventure game using Esenthel.

Thanks for the interest and the suggestion jagatai. I made my interface available in the last engine I worked with but unfortunately the situation with EKI One has somewhat changed since then.

EKI One is no longer being developed or supported although it is seemingly still available to buy. This has been the case for about a year and a half now. The company that bought out Artificial Technology (the creators of EKI One) have their own competing product range and to my knowledge have not agreed to the release of the C++ SDK since then and this is required to interface EKI One successfully into game engines.

I was provided with the SDK through agreement with Artificial Technology due to the integration work I did with Leadwerks. I am unfortunately not licensed to distribute that to others. So that is an effective show stopper for anyone not currently in possession of a licensed copy of EKI One and a legal copy of the SDK.

On the plus side, the guys behind EKI One have been working on integrating a lot of their technology into The Masa Group's products and I know they showcased a new AI engine product 'Masa Life' at GDC this year. Although that is not for sale as yet I suspect it is not far off and might be one to keep an eye on as the product manager is Frank Gwosdz the previous CEO of Artificial Technology. Frank did indicate to me they were thinking of making an Indie version available which would hopefully make the product affordable!